Congratulations to Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja on receiving an NIH R56 grant through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases entitled, “Molecular mechanisms of Shiga toxin-mediated cell death”.  Dr. Vijay Rathinam and Dr. Jianbin Ruan serve as Co-Investigators on the grant.

Congratulations to Dr. Jianbin Ruan on receiving an NIH R01 grant through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences entitled, “Molecular mechanism of necroptosis mediated by mixed lineage kinase-like (MLKL) protein”. Immunology faculty members Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja and Dr. Vijay Rathinam  serve as Co-Investigators.

Vincent “Vinnie” Graziano received the 2026 Henderson Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis in Biomedical Science at the annual Graduate Student Research Day. This prize was established in memory of Edward G. Henderson, Ph.D., a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology from 1968 to 1997. Dr. Henderson is remembered for his commitment to graduate education and his dedication to the supervision of graduate students. Vinnie studied under the mentorship of Dr. Vijay Rathinam.

Dr. Penghua Wang, Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology, was selected as the 2026 recipient of the Osborn Award for Excellence in Biomedical Science Graduate Teaching.  This award recognizes a UConn Health Graduate School faculty member for his or her commitment to providing the best education in the classroom and training in the laboratory. Congratulations Dr. Wang!

Congratulations to Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja on receiving an NIH R01 grant through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases entitled, “Regulation of antibacterial interferon defense by MiT family transcription factors”.   Dr. Vijay Rathinam and Dr. Beiyan Zhou will serve as Co-Investigators on the grant.

Congratulations to Dr. Kepeng Wang on receiving an NIH R01 grant through the National Cancer Institute entitled: “Controlling tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cell function by the IL-17-Ybx1 signaling pathway”. Dr. Anthony Vella will serve as Co-Investigator on the grant.

Congratulations to Dr. Vijay Rathinam on receiving an NIH R01 grant through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases entitled, “GlycoRNA control of immune homeostasis”. Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja will serve as Co-Investigator on the grant.

Congratulations to Dr. Kepeng Wang  on receiving an NIH R01 grant through the National Cancer Institute entitled, “A novel “cap-linker” strategy to target oncolytic viruses to the tumor”.

The University of Connecticut held  Commencement ceremonies to honor the Class of 2026.   For more photos from the day, click here

Congratulations to Dr. Kai Li on receiving an NIH R35 grant through the National Institute of General Medical Science entitled, “Investigating Dead Cell-Phagocyte Interaction at the Phagosomal Interface to Decode Death-Associated Responses”